Darts of Silver
by LuipaardJack
Summary: An accident with McGee is more telling than Gibbs would like. Slash, Gibbs/McGee and Tony/McGee.


**Fandom**: NCIS  
**Pairing**: Anthony DiNozzo/Timothy McGee  
**Rating**: PG  
**Warnings**: Slash, unrequited Gibbs/McGee.  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own NCIS.

**7snogs** challenge #7: crackle.

* * *

The crackle of electricity followed by Tim's shriek of pain is what prompts Gibbs to grab him by the belt and tear him away from the exposed electrical wires.

McGee is unconscious as Gibbs lowers him on to the soft bed of grass, but his extremities twitch as his muscles convulse. Gibbs takes one of McGee's hands, and without meaning to, starts running his thumb over the younger man's knuckles as he searches for a pulse in his neck. The twitching carotid is a blessing, and Gibbs is able to breathe just a little bit easier.

He examines the captive hand discerningly as he dials 911. There are burns on the fingertips and palm, ones that still smoking and popping blisters, raw and red and angry. He lightly kisses one of the burns right before the operator speaks.

--

The ride to the hospital is long and stressful; McGee wakes up just as one of the paramedics is taking his blood pressure, screaming about something about amputations, and it takes Gibbs nearly twenty minutes to calm everyone down and to convince McGee not to shoot anyone. But he can't bring himself to be angry, since a frightened, trigger-happy McGee is a McGee that isn't dead, and he wants _that_ kind over the decomposing variety.

Its all chaos after that; everyone is freaking out because McGee was shocked (not _electrocuted_, because you're only electrocuted when you're _dead_) and because Gibbs can't provide very many relevant details as to voltage and amperes and whatever else it is that doctors need to judge damage and the extent of it. He looks to McGee for that, who dutifully tells the staff what happened even as his hands shake.

--

A long six hours later, and McGee is cleared to leave. There's a bandage on his hand that smells strongly of cleaning alcohol and yeast; both of them wrinkle their noses at it, and Gibbs considers the merits of promising McGee ointment that smells nicer.

The doctor lectures McGee on improper safety practices after he rattles off the jargon about EKGs and muscle electrolytes. Gibbs doesn't understand much of any of it; his understanding of electricity and the conduits it runs through is limited to tripped breakers and knowing not to touch wires when wet. McGee keeps a straight face throughout the castigation, nodding solemnly in the appropriate places. He laughs hysterically when the doctor leaves, and starts telling Gibbs about when he was nineteen and tried to fix his parents breaker systems.

He's just getting around to the part when his father switched the power back on when Tony walks through the door. The expression on their faces is almost obscene in sheer depth of emotion; Gibbs feels embarrassed seeing it, as if he's walked in on them naked and tangled together in bed.

Tony manages a crack about McGee and copper, but his eyes haven't missed the bandaged hand or the red lines in Tim's face where the blood vessels burst. Gibbs promptly demands a progress report when he sees Tony starting to move towards the bed; he knows that the minute DiNozzo's ass touches the mattress he and McGee will be lost in their world, unreachable by anyone.

Gibbs knows that it isn't right for him to let this affair unfold right under his nose; he'll never be able to posit plausible deniability in his own defense if it gets out. It goes against everything inside of him to keep his mouth shut, to keep himself blind to the small touches and looks that betray his subordinates every day. They have long been past the point of _involved_.

It takes all his will power not to head slap DiNozzo when he hasn't done anything wrong, but the way he keeps looking at McGee is itching at the base of Gibbs spine. It's such a ridiculous reaction.

Tim isn't Gibbs' lover. He isn't Gibbs' anything.

_He could be,_ the treacherous part of his mind says, but Gibbs is used to ignoring what he wants in favor of what is necessary. He leaves Tony with McGee, bitterness rising in his throat even as DiNozzo slips onto the bed.


End file.
